• novelties

    Vox Customized Roadster Is ... Rocking

    This is the Voxmobile, a two-seat roadster commissioned by Vox, the audio equipment manufacturer, and built by roadster customizing mastermind, George Barris. Vox, being an audio company, didn't let Barris skimp on the audio accessories on this roadster. Hell, the entire thing is one giant audio accessory, really. More »

    2:20 PM on Wed May 14 2008
    By Travis Hudson
    1,632 views, 26 comments

    Latest by Naturally Exasperated?: @Smells_Homeless: Leslie's are pretty awesome! Some have weird, rectangular Yamaha midrange drivers inside. Restoring one of these is definitely for more »

  • john travolta

    Don't Touch the Hair: "Travolta Fever" Custom Trans Am on eBay

    Not long after L. Ron Hubbard got John Travolta's thetans on a silver platter, the New Jersey-born actor starred in a little movie about dancing around like a putz. It was called Saturday Night Fever, and it became a multimedia, pop-culture phenomenon that launched both his career and that of the Bee Gees into the stratosphere. As such, marketers of all stripe muscled in on Travolta Fever, an illness whose symptoms included jumpsuits and an overly intense affinity for hair products. At the time, it was customary for custom car builder George Barris to work up some manner of rod to celebrate a media property that passed a certain tipping point. Such was this "Travolta Fever" Trans Am, one of the first celebrity car model kits ever offered by Revell. Now, it's for sale on eBay. Get in on the malaise-era automotive collector's market now, before all the great ones are gone. And get this one too, what the hell. [eBay]

    11:30 AM on Fri Nov 9 2007
    By Mike Spinelli
    1,962 views 41 comments

    Latest by Brian B: @FLB: Hey now! Not everything he created sucked. George did build the Munster's rod and the TV series Batmobile, after more »

  • retro

    1977 Datsun B210 Reverse Customized by Aliens

    With an ongoing soft spot for the Datsun B210, and especially the fastback version, we were both flummoxed and amazed when we found this example of somewhat Barris-style custom Datsun B210 for sale on eBay. Having seen many an example of what the ravages of time can impart on unrestored custom cars makes something in this kind of condition a possible example of reverse-engineered custom car building by a covert group of government sponsored Greys. Aliens may have abducted Barris himself in the late '70s and had him build this thing under some sort of memory erasing hypnosis. – Mike Bumbeck More »

    2:15 PM on Thu Mar 22 2007
    By Mike Bumbeck
    5,794 views, 6 comments

    Latest by yetiwisdom: that thing is so beautiful. like a honda cbx with custom chrome pipes and mudflaps! yeah! more »

  • news

    Batmobile #6 Sells For 119K

    The sixth of an "unspecified number" of Batmobiles built for the original TV show just went for the equivalent of $233,000 at an auction in London today. The winning bid came from a private museum in that no-questions-asked tax haven, the Cayman Islands. What's interesting about Batmobile #6 is that it's a steel-bodied car, unlike the fiberglass copies of Barris' original commissioned by the show's producers. Doesn't seem like such a bad deal, compared to the price tag of the Pope's ex-Golf. – Murilee Martin More »

    7:23 PM on Wed Feb 28 2007
    By Murilee Martin
    419 views, 2 comments

    Latest by thunderbolt: My understanding is that there are 5 original Batmobiles.The Futura conversion and 3 fiberglass pulled from the Futura.There was a more »

  • retro

    We Will Assuredly Keep on Vannin': Super Van Clip!

    We posted on Super Van a while back, noting that had appeared in various guises over the years, but we'd never seen the film in which it played the titular role. This has not changed. However, we did manage to dig up this clip via YouTube, which Lew had hipped us to a while back. The van was allegedly solar-powered, but the powertrain apparently involves a theremin somehow. Oh, and it's got lasers. Lasers powerful enough to blow up other vehicles. Lasers, a diamond-tuft headliner, Vista Cruiser-on-'roids side windows and a green method of motivation? Forget Tesla, we're going Super Van all the way. – Davey G. Johnson More »

    5:00 PM on Wed Jan 3 2007
    By Davey G. Johnson
    292 views, 9 comments

    Latest by milocarrera: Heh. "titular". more »

  • retro

    Grandpa! Munsters' Car For Sale on eBay

    Grandpa Munster was a sucker for a rail job. At least, that's what George Barris must have considered when he built the car that became Grandpa's vampiric ride for the 1960s TV show, "The Munsters." According to the seller, this car is one of nine built for the show. Its pedigree, the seller says, can be documented, and it's got a small-block Chevy engine, Turbo 350 transmission with a B&M shifter and a Chevy rear-end of unknown final drive. Additions include a new radiator, electric fan, electric fuel pump, two Holly 650 cfm carbs, Offenhauser cross ram intake, polished valve covers also a new super starter. Sleeps one — in peace. More »

    10:30 AM on Tue Aug 22 2006
    By Mike Spinelli
    2,962 views, 2 comments

    Latest by Ford Mustang: It says it's a replica. No wonder it's only at $2400. more »

  • retro

    Here We Come...Rollin' Down The Street...The Monkeemobile!

    As a child, we loved two things: musclecars (especially GTOs and B-Body Mopars) and the Monkees. In fact, the first rock show we ever saw was the non-Nesmith reunion lineup on tour with "Weird Al" Yankovic in the summer of 1987. Lack of Mr. Woolhat not withstanding (we're still big Mike Nesmith fans, by the way), the thing we missed most during the show was the absence of their Goat-on-acid Monkeemobile. The Dean Jeffries-designed Pontiac A-Body came about via a precipitous confluence of Universal execs, Southern California hot rodders and model producer MPC. More »

    4:00 PM on Tue Aug 8 2006
    By Davey G. Johnson
    959 views, 6 comments

    Latest by Monkeerestorer: Your chance to own the original Monkeemobile is coming up January 12-20, 2008 at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale AZ. more »

  • movie cars

    You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Schtupps You in a Mercury: Dean Martin's Sex Wagon

    Before there was Carmen Electra, there was Stella Stevens. Bit-part-playing, Playboy-posing, celebrity-sexing Stevens was a favorite among male movie fans, who rewarded her nudity-intensive approach to getting famous by making her a major pinup of the time. In 1966, she starred in "The Silencers" with Rat Pack impresario Dean Martin as goofball special agent Matt Helm. Helm, of pulp fiction fame, bedded like Bond despite (or because of) a tendency for self-effacement and heavy drinking. The two carried on their professional relationship in the back of a 1966 Mercury station wagon, customized by George Barris (who else?). Dubbed "The Sex Wagon" in the movie, the Merc features two separate bedrooms fitted with leather upholstery, a martini bar, a tailgate modified to lower as a step, and a working TV. That car — an anteceedent of the modern pimp's ride — had been in the back of a garage somewhere before the Volo Auto Museum got hold of it. Now, it's on permanent display for those interested in how grandpa once got his freak on, or wished he did. More »

    11:24 AM on Wed Jul 19 2006
    By Mike Spinelli
    371 views, 1 comment

    Latest by Mark Miller: Want to know where "Car 54" is? You'll find it right alongside the "Sex Wagon"... Yup, the green and white '61 Fury more »

  • celebrities: movie cars

    Dad, Can I Borrow the Rod?: Cars of Famous TV Fathers

    NADAguides.com is celebrating Father's Day by examining the cars of some famous TV fathers. While we'd always been partial to Mike Brady's seemingly endless selection of Mopar convertibles, we hadn't considered Ward Cleaver's similar proclivities, of the Plymouth sedan variety, or Al Bundy's '72 Dart (what else would he drive?). Still, even with Tony Soprano's SUV's and Hulk Hogan's Viper, there are at least two TV-dad rides they failed to mention. Check 'em out after the jump, and include your own candidates in the comments. More »

    10:08 AM on Tue Jun 13 2006
    By Mike Spinelli
    934 views, 9 comments

    Latest by 1974: What about Ricky Ricardo's Star Chief convertible? more »

  • news

    Mr. Barris Goes to Monte Carlo

    George Barris is a funny little man. Back when he was in high school at San Juan, he and his brother would clamber into their hopped-up jalopy and drive down from out in Citrus Heights (which was completely the sticks back in the 1940s) and cruise down to McClatchy High in Sacramento, because, in Barris' words, "McClatchy had the best-looking girls." Later on, Barris built the Sidewinder, and if you couldn't cruise a high school in this bad boy and pull some tail back in '76, man, you weren't even trying. It's up for bids at Bonhams' Les Grandes Marques a Monaco in Monte Carlo this weekend. [Thanks to the Mighty Thor for the Mighty Tip.] More »

    4:27 PM on Tue May 16 2006
    By Davey G. Johnson
    253 views, Comment